ACL - Day 1

Well, it is that time of year again my friends. Or I should say it was that time of year, last weekend. Time for Austin City Limits music festival! Jason and I, and usually Amanda and Jared, try to go every year. For those who don't know what it is, it is a music festival that is held every year in Austin for three full days with 130 bands playing on several stages all through out the day. It is always a blast, as well as super tiring, so I am a little exhausted today as I write to you, but I will do my best to tell you all the fun details of the weekend.

Jason and I headed out of Dallas after work on Thursday and met Amanda and Jared at a 'quaint' little hotel in North Austin just to have some place to stay for the night. We got up the next day for breakfast at Kerbey Lane (surprise, surprise) to find that there was NO WAIT. I literally do not think I have EVER been to KL when we didn't have to wait. I couldn't believe it. Guess cause it was a school/work day? Either way, we were stoked. After breakfast we walked down to Tyler's (Austin's version of Raquet and Jog for you Tylerites), and bought some new, much more comfy shoes to wear to ACL, then we headed to our much nicer and more conveniently located hotel downtown.

Now we had decided to stay at the Radisson on Town Lake because it said online it was only a mile from Zilker Park. Now maybe it was a mile, as the crow flies, to the very closest edge of where Zilker technically starts or something, but it is no mile walking to ACL. It was at LEAST two miles if not more. Basically it took us about 45 minutes to walk there, and when you are walking in the heat all day long around the park, the last thing you want to do is walk 45 minutes schlepping a bag chair on your back, back to the hotel. So we did end up paying some of those pedicab guys a few times to take us back and forth to the festival. I bet they made a killing this weekend!

So anyway, we get in to our nice new comfy room and unpack and get all our stuff together to head out to the festival. We walk and walk and walk to the park, but once you get closer to the park it isn't so bad because there are TONS of people giving away free stuff. Free koozies, free beer, free coconut water, energy drinks, fans, etc. There was also this tent full of hippies selling mostly pipes, to be used for tabacco use only I am sure, and shirts and stuff and every time we walked past they had some awesome song on, such as Michael Jackson's Dirty Diana the first time, and they were dancing around like crazy. We looked forward to that every time we passed. It looked like they were having a very good time. =)

So the first day of the festival was Friday, and it was my busiest day. The first band I wanted to see was Rodney Crowell, and he started at 12:30 (which we didn't quite make due to the walk taking three times as long as we thought), but I really only wanted to see him cause I like this song "What Kind of Love" that came out when I was in like 9th grade or something. So it's old and I am sure he didn't sing it anyway.

The next band we saw was What Made Milwaukee Famous. I knew a few of their songs, though I am not a huge fan, and they are a local Austin band so I thought they would be cool to see. I would say they were good, nothing outstanding. They sounded just like they do on the album, which I know is what a lot of people want in a concert, but I like a little something extra added to a show. Whether it is just a few funny quips from the lead singer or some jumping around on stage to add some high energy. I mean the Kaiser Chiefs lead singer broke his ankle last year at their show, not that I would wish that on WMMF, just would have liked to see something a little more from them. Not a bad set, just nothing special.

After WMMF was Sunny Sweeny. She is a Texas country artist that my sister is really in to so I had gotten her CD and had actually gotten to where I really liked it so I was excited to see this one. She also had a stage where we could sit in the shade so it was a nice break from the heat. Her set was great I thought. It was a much smaller stage with a smaller crowd and we were up pretty close so it felt more intimate, which is always better, but she was also fun and the songs were great. I always feel like if I don't know a song, but find myself really liking it on a first listen, then I am sold. So she got a thumbs up from me.

After Sunny, I had my only break of the day until Patty Griffin at 4:30. So we high tailed it over to the food court to meet up with the boys and to sample some of the fine local cuisine. I got some nachos from Salt Lick and they were tasty. I love nachos.

So after some much needed sustenance, we went to see Patty Griffin on the big stage. She is one of my all time favorite musicians and was one of the people I was most looking forward to. She was great, but we weren't able to get very close and the sound system just wasn't that loud so we were having a hard time hearing too. I was a little disappointed, but it made my decision on whether to stay for her entire set and miss part of Mates of State, or to leave a bit early for MOS easier. I left early and caught Mates of State entire set. Good choice Kelli. The first couple songs I think their sound was a little off, like the vocals were way louder than the instruments or something so it sounded a little strange. After that, though, the rest of the set was awesome. They have a bunch of songs where they bring out a cellist and a couple violinists and it sounds so pretty. They sang my two favorite songs 'Goods' and 'The Re-Arranger' so I was a happy camper.

After MOS, I headed over to see Jenny Lewis. She is/was, not sure if they are broken up or what, the lead singer of Rilo Kiley, as well as a fairly well known child actor. You may know her from playing Shelley Allen's daughter in Troup Beverly Hills or as Fred Savages crush in The Wizard. Two of my favorite movies growing up. Anyway, I had gotten her CD and really liked it so I was excited to see her. I had to get there late and leave early so I really didn't get to see but just a few songs, but she did an amazing job. She is adorable too. I swear she is like 5 feet tall and she was such a sweetheart. I think I would like to be friends with her. Do you think she would be interested? No? Ok, fine.

Next up was the Eli Young Band, who I have become a big fan of in the last year, so I was excited to see them. They were pretty good too. Sang some stuff off their new album that I haven't really gotten a chance to listen to much, so that was nice, and also sang my favorites off their old album. The lead singer, Mike Eli I believe is his name, talked to the audience a lot which I like, so again, thumbs up for them.

Right after them was The Swell Season. These guys you might remember if you watched the Oscars last year. They were featured in an Irish movie called Once, and won an Academy Award for best original song in a motion picture. The song is called Falling Slowly and is beautiful. You should check it out. Anyway, I only got to stay for a little while because it was getting dark and everyone else was supposed to 'find' me and there was no way they were going to after dark and we had no back up plan. So I left early to go back to where they were. After Swell Season was Mars Volta, who I kind of wanted to see, but I am not like a huge fan and everyone else wanted to go ahead and go because they were meeting up with people later on. I was exhausted anyway, so we left and walked alllll the way back to the hotel. I showered, got in bed and konked out until 9:30 the next day. It has been a while since I slept that late!

Coming up...Day 2!